Race Weekend at AMS - From The Fan's Point of View!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Can you believe it?! NASCAR Night Racing on Labor Day Weekend is nearly here at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Who better to tell you about what race weekend here is like than some of your own – fans of Atlanta Motor Speedway themselves!

As we were walking in the pit area, our daughter, who was 24 at the time, saw the crew for Kasey Kahne working by a bunch of tires for the race. They looked to be about her age. She asked about what they were doing. The crew members explained that they were gluing the lug nuts onto the rims of the tires and why they did that.

As they were talking, our daughter asked if she could have one of the lug nuts as a souvenir. The one crew member said, ‘of course’ and asked her to put out her hand (you probably know what happened). She put out her hand to receive her souvenir and he placed the already glued lug nut, glue first into her palm. We all had a good chuckle. We totally enjoyed the race and the facility.

Dale Cummings

Rochester, NY

I'm a big Hendrick fan, but it was great to see Jeff and Jimmie battle it to the line on the last lap.

I raced down to the fence to watch Jeff in victory lane getting out of his car with his cell phone to his ear the stand up with two arms in the air. Just like Rocky did in the Rocky movie!

Wayne and April Jones

It could not have turned out much better for us.

The race day was awesome. We took part in the track walk and our seats were in row 8, right near turn one. The cars were so fast and I found out that it is really hard to see everything that goes on, but it was amazing to see and hear. I focused on Smoke and watched some incredible driving.

These guys really are the best in the world. It also happened that the wreck that flipped Brad Keselowski was right in front of us. He hit the wall less than fifty feet away from us. It was so fast, we hardly saw what happened until it was over. The race was amazing. The track and the experience were something I will never forget and I hope to be able to do it again.

Nicholas Gavel and Leah MacDonald

My wife has been an Edwards fan ever since his flip after the March 2005 race at AMS for his first win. We went out Friday Night and saw that he would be there at his trailer that Saturday Morning but only 150 tickets would be handed out at 8am. So we went home, slept a little and came back at 3 am to the trailer to wait. We were not the only ones in line already. There was this mother and her nine-year old boy with a learning disability. They were very nice people and we chatted for hours and his excitement was amazing.

Well, 8 am came and we got our tickets and went back to the car to get our stuff to have signed. When we got back to the trailer we got in line to wait. No sign of the little boy or his mother. We thought they might be in the back on the line because they got their tickets before us. It became my wife's turn and she steps up beaming to have her big monster truck remote control signed. Carl was thrilled. He told us that he had never seen anything like that and he says he usually gets everything.

He leaned over to get a picture with her and gave her a special Alfac Coin just for wearing the ‘first shirt’ that he got his first win in. You would have thought that she had won the lottery or something. Just to meet Edwards made her weekend. She was on cloud nine.

We were walking around the exhibit area afterwards and the little boy spotted me from a distance. He ran over to me and took my hand and told me to shake the hand that shook Carl Edwards hand. This young boy was beaming with joy just for a handshake from a NASCAR Driver. He was full of joy and excitement. That is what NASCAR is. It is not just a Race, it is an experience. For both the young and old. Woman or Men. Girls or Boys. NASCAR is family like no other sport. Just had to share the story.

Bobby Johnson

Stockbridge, Ga

We may only come with a couple of friends, but we leave with a whole section of friends!